Philly Eclipse Means a winning season for Temple

Temple’s band prior to football game against St. Joe in 1925. (photo courtesy Temple archives)

Depending upon which conspiracy theory you believe circulating around the internet, at about 3 this afternoon, all of us are going to be raptured into Heaven or sent to a hotter place. Hell (pun intended), one member of Congress floated that possibility on her twitter account.

Since I’m not a conspiracy theorist, and there is really no good way to predict the 2024 final Temple football record without knowing which big-time quarterback Owls can attract here on or around April 15, I decided to do some research on what the Owls did in prior Philadelphia eclipse years.

Good news.

While the Owls have had more losing seasons in their history than winning ones, some of their best seasons have come when solar eclipses visited Philadelphia. In fact, they have not had a single losing season in the past 100 years during an eclipse year.

No quotes in this story but an interesting lede nonetheless.

1925–Under head coach “Heinie” Miller, the Owls finished 5-2-2, beating Upsala, 19-0, at the “old” Northeast High, 8th and Lehigh. They also moved a couple of blocks West to beat St. Joseph’s College (now University), 32-0, at Baker Bowl, Broad and Lehigh, that year. The Philadelphia eclipse occurred on Jan. 25.

1932–The 5-1-2 Owls played all home games at the then new Temple Stadium including a 14-0 win against Denver (Colo.). Their only road game was a 7-7 tie against Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh. Carnegie Tech, which played NYU at Yankee Stadium that year, also finished with a winning season. The Owls also beat Penn State, 13-12, at Temple Stadium. They also beat West Virginia, 14-13. The eclipse in Philadelphia occurred on Aug. 31.

1963–After the July 20th eclipse, the Owls of George Makris finished 5-3-1 and likely would have finished 6-3-1 if they had been able to play their final game of the season. That game was originally scheduled to be played on Saturday, November 23, at Temple Stadium but was canceled due to the tragic assassination of President John F. Kennedy the prior day.

2017–On Aug. 21, the Owls were wrapping up their first camp under new coach Geoff Collins and got off the field during the eclipse that day (1:21-4 p.m.). They finished 7-6 that season with a 28-3 bowl win over FIU. QB Frank Nutile was the MVP.

2024–Maybe the Owls pick up a big-name quarterback in the portal post the Cherry and White game who leads them to a winning season. Of course, there was no transfer portal in prior eclipse years so the Owls had to settle on whoever was enrolled in the school at the time. They need an upgrade so the transfer portal could provide good news soon.

We can only hope so. They have an eclipse tradition to uphold.

Friday: Cherry and White Preview

Monday: Cherry and White Recap

Friday (April 19): Five Guys

Monday (April 22): A Possible Hail Mary For Temple

4 thoughts on “Philly Eclipse Means a winning season for Temple

  1. How many teams on the schedule this year are still seeking their starting QB at the end of Spring Practice?

    On paper, this team might have potential to improve on 3-9 with all conference play at QB.

    2-10 without it.

    The Owls will face a greatly improved AAC, and the non-conference schedule is no better than 1-3.

  2. perhaps the great QBs will rotate, like musical chairs.., smh.

    On the other hand, it was good to see former players hanging out. Wonder what took so long?

    Ironic, Dion Dawkins was in the building this week. After three years Drayton still does not have a Dawkins type to lead the team off the bus, and out of the tunnel on game day.

    AG and MR got it, immediately. Maybe the lights will come on w/Drayton after seeing Dawkins in the building. Temple Tuff.., who is the dude the whole will get behind in a bar fight? Blue collar, lunch pail, 10th & Diamond football

    Drayton’s teams will never be tough unless the biggest badass on the team is wearing a single digit.

    • … and that badass better be a senior with no eligibility left. I don’t ever want to see a Temple player take his single digit elsewhere. This is something we can control. It is one of the very few things we can control.

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